Category: theatre

“By 2016 the Donmar, a tiny but high-profile theatre in Covent Garden [in London], had put on not one but three all-female Shakespeares, each with the great actor Harriet Walter, directed by [Phyllida] Lloyd and with an ethnically diverse cast drawn partly from ex-offenders. The trilogy – which includes [Julius Caesar,] Henry IV and The Tempest – has already been staged back-to-back in a large tent in King’s Cross and travelled to New York.” Says Donmar executive producer Kate Pakenham, “The Shakespeare trilogy has a feminist mission, a social mission, an inclusivity mission, an education mission. And that actually drove philanthropy and partnerships and funding that made the theatre richer in every way.”

“The origin story begins in 2007, when [Orin] Wolf took his wife, who was born in Israel, to the Other Israel Film Festival at J.C.C. Manhattan on the Upper West Side. There was a new Israeli film playing that they wanted to see — The Band’s Visit, a fictional story about an Egyptian police orchestra that gets stranded for a night in an Israeli desert town. Mr. Wolf was, at that point, a producer largely in his dreams.”

“The book festival is becoming an incubator for new ideas, not only in books but also in the theatre. We are an experimental stage for theatrical ideas and we are very proud of that new emerging role.”

“The question for arts journalism is, what is the role of the critic in contemporary society?” Charles Whitaker said. “Critics are no longer the influential arbiters of taste that they once were. People are turning to Facebook and their friends to determine where to spend their arts dollars. The role of the critic has been democratized by the fact that everyone has an opportunity to be an influencer, via their own media channels.”

Ironically, in the musical devoted to their lives – A Chorus Line, of course – there often is no chorus. But Actors Equity wants to change what chorus members can achieve: “It’s petitioning the Tony administration committee to consider awards for not only choruses, but their counterparts in plays, known as ensembles.”

And they brought the house down: “Ms. Herzfeld’s students surprised the audience, singing an emotional rendition of ‘Seasons of Love,’ from the musical Rent. They received a standing ovation, and left some in the crowd in tears.”

What a ridiculous idea. “These hoary hand-wringings are a cumulative canard bigger than the worldwide branding of Donald Duck (you knew I’d get to Disney eventually). They betray a lack of perspective for Broadway history and, most disconcerting to me, a bias against children and their predilections.”

Apparently the juggernaut that is Harry Potter will never end, and The Band’s Visit gets a big award as well. (And if you want to read more about the speeches, the tone, and … uh … De Niro, here you go.)